Lodi church files suit over California’s ban on large gatherings due to coronavirus

The Lodi church that had its Palm Sunday services shut down by police enforcing Gov. Gavin Newsom’s ban on large gatherings and an order by San Joaquin County’s public health officials is suing, arguing that officials are guilty of an Orwellian “abuse of authority” in their efforts to stop the spread of coronavirus.

“Civil rights are not suspended by a virus,” says the lawsuit filed in federal court in Sacramento. “Fundamental and unalienable rights are, by their very nature, ‘essential.’

“Yet the State of California has, in a sweeping abuse of its power, criminalized all religious assembly and communal religious worship while allowing citizens to gather at a liquor store, pot-dispensary, Planned Parenthood, Walmart, CVS, Costco, Home Depot, and many other locations which are deemed ’essential.’”

The suit was filed despite rulings by two federal judges in other cases rejecting similar arguments by Southern California churches.

The latest lawsuit, filed on behalf of the Cross Culture Christian Center and pastor Jonathan Duncan, declares that the “state does not have the authority to disregard well-established religious tenets relating to gatherings and method of worship.”

Law enforcement officials disagreed with that argument, with four Lodi police officers in masks and gloves showing up at the church on Palm Sunday to ensure that Duncan did not go ahead with plans to conduct services that day.

The church’s landlord already had changed the locks on the church doors, and the county issued an order April 3 “specifically targeting the church,” the suit says.

“At the same time, a purportedly ‘essential’ day care center on the same church property is able to continue to operate on-site,” according to the 51-page lawsuit filed by the National Center for Law & Policy in Escondido. “The church is therefore banned even from making video recordings for church services streamed over the internet.

“If the church wanted to have a ‘drive-in service,’ which is also permissible under Governor Gavin Newsom’s stay-at-home executive order ... it is prohibited from doing so by the April 3, 2020 county order. This absolute government ban on any and all of the church’s religious worship activity is ‘beyond all reason’ unconstitutional.”

The suit comes as Newsom’s shelter-in-place order is drawing criticism from cities and individuals who say it is harming their financial well-being and goes too far. It also follows a lawsuit by the National Rifle Association seeking a declaration by the governor that gun stores are “essential.”

Some rural municipalities complain that they have relatively few coronavirus cases and should not be forced to endure the same limits on movements and working as more congested areas with greater numbers of COVID-19 cases.

But the governor has resisted calls to announce an end date for his order, and has laid out specific criteria for when the state may begin to ease its restrictions.

This story was originally published April 23, 2020 at 11:27 AM with the headline "Lodi church files suit over California’s ban on large gatherings due to coronavirus."